The Lord says, Do not destroy these kingdoms, or governments, until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. There we stopped after noticing the number of seals; that the Jews were sealed in their forehead, that ono hundred and forty-four thousand Jews understood the Word of the Lord--and acknowledged Jesus, of course; that an innumerable company were before the throne; a sea of glass as clear as crystal--the spirits of just men made perfect; the part of the family that had crossed over Jordan were praising the Lord with all the angels, while all the people on earth, the twenty-four elders and four beasts, were united with them in saying, "Blessing, and glory and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever." John said that the sea of glass, or innumerable company, had gained the victory, had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; they were beyond the reach of hunger, sorrow, tears, or death. He just comes up to the very scene of the fourth and fifth chapters, when he has come to the end of the sixth seal: he gives us, in the winding up of the sixth seal, almost the very words he had given in the fourth and fifth chapters,--showing that the events named there, come in at the last part of the sixth seal. May the Lord have mercy on the man who can not understand it.

But, then, there is a seventh seal to open. What of that? We have come to the end--from the gospel start until it comes out again and subdues the nations--Jews and Gentiles--and brings them to the Lord; and the whole family on the earth are united with the family in heaven, saying, Jesus is worthy. And the seventh seal is to be opened yet. (We are going to school now, not preaching.) I now call your attention to the opening of the seventh seal.

"And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." A long silence there. Nothing more to tell. He is through with the whole line of events of the gospel struggles against the/131/powers of darkness, from the start until it gained the victory, and brought the whole human family, in heaven and on earth, to the feet of Jesus. Well might he pause when the seventh seal is opened, and say that there was silence. He was through to the end of the chapter, to the end of the paragraph; a full line of the history of events until he reaches the point named first--the last event named first. But, then, in this seventh seal, when he has come to this awful pause, all the remaining part of Revelation is embraced. It can never go forward; it, then, must drop backward.

If I had only one prayer to offer to-night, I would say, Lord grant that we may now bear in mind the key to the understanding of this book, and that we may be blessed in reading it and hearing it. For John can never advance further than he has when the seventh seal is opened; and silence is there. He has taken our minds down to the seventh and last scene, and we are before the throne with palms of victory in our hands, and he must fall back; and, with the seventh seal, he brings up another full line of historic events, from the day of his exile, and of seeing the Vision, until the millennial age shall be ushered in. And I wish to illustrate.

Suppose that some stranger should ask me the history of this, our country, and that he never had heard one word about our history in his life--was a perfect stranger to all of it. He would ask me to give him an outline of the history, or a full history, of our country. I would say, "Sir, in the year 1620 there was but a handful of people landed at Plymouth Rock, and there was a little handful at Jamestown, Virginia. This whole land was a wilderness from Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But now we are one of the mightiest nations on the globe." "Bless me, sir, that is wonderful; but you told me of the then und the now, the first and the last." Just so the Lord has/132/ told us of the then and the now. In the first chapter, John said he was in exile for bearing witness of him who is to come again. Tells of his exile for the witness of Jesus, which was the then; it was a dark time when the last apostle was in exile for the witness of Jesus; but, then, to say Jesus will come again--it was the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z.

But the stranger would ask me something more about our country. I would say: "Yes, sir; I can tell you something more. Our fathers, in 1620, were destitute of all the necessaries of life; now we have every luxury that heart could desire." "Well, but," the stranger would say, "you have given me the first and the last again--the then and the now." Just so the Lord did in this Book of Revelation; he said the churches were cold, had left their first love, and gone into idolatry; had become lukewarm; had departed from the right way, and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth; and then, in the very next chapter, told John that the churches should be bright and shining lights at a future time; and the whole earth would be full of his glory; but it was the Alpha and Omega. He had omitted the whole alphabet between the two.

But the stranger might say to me: "I would like to hear something between the then and now of the history of your country. You have given me the then and the now twice. Fill up the space between these two points, if you please." I would then commence to trace a line of the improvements in agricultural implements, from the days of the rude grubbing hoe and the old ox-cart, on down through all the modern improvements; tell him of the invention of the reaping and mowing machines, and the introduction of steam cars and telegraph wires, and say that we have all these improvements now, running through the land, as the old prophet said, like lamps of fire; and with/133/the speed of lightning, nation communicates with nation. The old prophet said they would, when they came out of the whirlwind--that the nations would run and return (in their communications with each other, of course,) as the appearance of a flash of lightning; and they are doing it. Just so the Lord has given us a revelation of the time between John's day, when he saw the Vision, and the millennial age, a whole line of spirits that would be brought out at different periods of time.

But the stranger would say to me: "I would like to hear something more about your country; you have given me a line of the improvements between the first settlement of the country and now, but I would like to hear something more." And I commence back at Plymouth Rock again, and give him a history of all our troubles with the red men, and tell him of all the Indian wars, from the time the first scalp was taken from a white man, and tell him of our succeeding in driving them back, and still further back, until I say, now they are a little handful, over in the Western wilds, while we are a mighty nation. They were strong then, and we were weak; but now, after all the wars I have told him of, they have dwindled to an insignificant handful, and we are this mighty nation. But I could go no further than now in the history, could I? So the Lord takes up another revelation when he is through with the first--having established his points of then and now, from the day of John's exile in Patmos to the millennial age, as given in the fourth and fifth chapters, line after line, and revelation after revelation, between those points. I know this is right; I do not guess at it. I am going to prove it. That is the great key to the understanding of this book, and for the want of it, our wise men have stumbled aud blundered and fell.

When John has run through the line, then, to the seventh seal, he drops back. I might illustrate further with/134/this stranger's inquiry. He would say, after I had gone through two lines from the then to the now of our country, "I would like to hear something more." I would say, "Yes; but I must go back to the starting point;" and I drop back to Plymouth Rock again, and tell him of all our troubles with the mother country; all the old laws and usages while we were colonies of the stamp act; of the tea tax; and that our fathers, the bright stars of American freedom, said, when they met in the Continental Congress, that they would die or be free; and then tell him of all the struggles our fathers had in the Revolutionary War; of the blood-stained paths from Valley Forge to Stony Point, and to Philadelphia, and over the Schuylkill; of all their toils and privations from one point to another; from the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Then, of the framing of the Constitution, and the improvements in our laws and usages, until I say, " Now we are not only the mightiest, but the wisest people in the world." But I only come to the now; and then I stop. I then run several lines (I might run seven,) from the settlement of the country until now, and drop back every time to the starting point; and it is common with a great many historians to do that. If they do not pursue that course entirely, they will advance a little way with one dine, and go back and take up another, and bring it up to that; and then take up another and carry it a little further, and go back and bring up a third and fourth, and keep them along together. But the Lord runs them through every time. I would do so in giving the history of our country, if I were bound to do my best. Now, with this illustration we are really to proceed with the opening of the seventh seal; for in that he brings up a new line from the first. Here is some proof of it at the start.

"And I saw the seven angels which stood before God;/135/and to them were given seven trumpets." He introduces the full number again--seven. Sometime during my lectures, I want to prove that seven is equivalent to all--a sacred full number. Therefore, as he has introduced seven angels with seven trumpets in this seventh seal, it is about equivalent to saying, I am going to show you another whole line, or panoramic view of the kingdom of heaven, from the days of the last surviving apostle until the millennium shall come.

But there came another angel beside the seven--"came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." I have sometimes said it would be hard to get the prayers of all professing saints into one vessel now. Not so at the time of which John is speaking. They were all of one heart and one soul then. They were not divided into parties then as they have been since that time, and now are. The prayers of all saints were to be offered on the golden altar; and the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer (John was going to recapitulate, and explain more particularly what Jesus said), and filled it with the fire of the altar. He tells us first he saw the smoke ascend, and the prayers of all saints, as sweet incense to the Lord. Now, he says "the angel took tho censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth; and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound."

John saw this angel that had the golden censer put fire from off the Lord's altar in with the prayers of the saints, and pour it all out together. And he heard voices--some-/136/thing said--and thunderings shaking in the land; lightnings flashing and blazing in the dark corners of the earth, and the earth trembled. That fire of the altar is the fire that the old prophet spoke of,--not the fire that some of our modern preachers talk about. The fire that the old prophet Malachi spoke of when he said, "The day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." But he had spoken of that day in the preceding chapter. It was the gospel day, that was to be neither clear nor dark until the evening time; but then it was to be light; and it was that day that old Elijah was to come to introduce to the people, or as a forerunner of the Lord.

Malachi says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of that day" that is to burn as an oven. And Jesus, in speaking on that subject, said, when the disciples asked him why the scribes said that Elijah was to come first,--they understood before the coming of the Lord, the hope of Israel. Jesus said that Elijah had come; and they need not conclude that that day is not ready to be ushered in, because Elijah has not come, for he has come already. They understood immediately that he had reference to John the Baptist. When John the Baptist came to introduce to Israel the long promised deliverer that was to send fire on the earth, Jesus said, "I have come to send fire on the earth;" for the prophet had said the day was to burn as an oven. What kind of fire did Jesus send on the earth? He said himself, he came to preach the gospel. And one of the Old Testament prophets said, The Word of the Lord is as a fire, as a refiner's fire; and Jesus came to preach the gospel, that fire which burns on the altar of the Christian's heart, by which he may offer an acceptable offering to the Lord./137/There is no other fire by which we can make an acceptable offering to the Lord, but God's Word--the gospel. Then John, by the Lord's definition given, saw the angel take the prayers of all the saints, and the Word of the Lord, and pour all out together; and they went everywhere preaching then; there were voices and thunderings; and these voices were the Lord's people, speaking the Word of the Lord, with their prayers for its success ascending to the God of heaven, shaking the land, making the nations tremble; and the first beast said with a voice of thunder, "Come and see" what this gospel of peace is doing: what this white horse is accomplishing in the land before our eyes. And the lightnings blazed then in the darkest corners of the most benighted neighborhoods and cities in all that dark land; for the prayers of saints and the Word of the Lord are all poured out there. John tells us this by the Bible's definition, and it is a historic truth.

And the seven angels prepared themselves to sound, and tell the conflicts the Word of the Lord will have to meet with--the battles it will have to fight from the day it is poured out over the first quarter of the world down to the millennial age.

"The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: nod the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."--Or as we paraphrase it, a third part of all the green grass, and the third part of the green trees, was burnt up. Not a word said about the dry grass or dry trees being burnt. And this is so plain that we need scarcely pause at it. When the gospel started, persecution met it; when the Word of the Lord was poured out with the prayers of his people, opposition was raised, and a dreadful fire and hail followed, and the green trees (the Christians), the tall and noble ones, and the humblest in all the land, suffered; they were stoned to death; it was/138/a literal hail. And they burned them at the stake, illuminated the streets of some of the large cities with their burning bodies. They were green trees, my brother. David says of the Lord's people: "The man that delights in the law of the Lord, that stands not in the way of sinners, is not walking in the counsel of the ungodly--that is, not sitting on the seat of the scornful--is like the green tree whose leaf never withers." [Psalm I.] To be sure, all flesh is as grass; but the Christians are the green grass; and it was the highest and the lowest, the wisest and rudest, that suffered; but not all of them. A third part of the Christians died in the bloody persecution under the Roman Caesars. It was hail and fire when that political power fell upon them, and a third part of the green trees and grass was burnt up. They put the Christians to death, and there was blood mingled with it. You do not think trees and grass have blood, do you? No; but he meant men-- Christians--as I will prove.

"And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed."

This is all John saw when the second angel sounded. A great burning mountain dropped over into the sea, and sank never to rise. But it turned a third part of the sea to blood, in the Vision of John, and killed a third part of the creatures which were in it; and a third part of the ships were destroyed. It is a wonderful vision! And John looked back from his stand-point and saw this Vision; and it has a signification. Never has a mountain burning with fire been tumbled into the sea; never has the sea been literally turned into blood; never yet has a third part of the ships been destroyed at any one time. Never yet has one third part of the creatures in the sea died at any one time./139/It is not literal, then: it is figurative. I said, some time since, that a mountain, when used in a figurative sense, always, in the Bible, means a government. Then, we must look for some great Government to fall. But you would rather have the proof than my assertion, would you not? In the chapter that I read (Isaiah iv), he says: Suddenly the mountains commenced singing, and the hills rejoicing,--referring to that age when the Lord's people were to return to him. Do you suppose he meant that mountains and hills, literally, would sing? He meant that the governments of earth would acknowledge the Lord, and sing praises to him; because he has so said in the fourth chapter of this book of Revelation--that it was every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, that were singing praises to the Lord Jesus, and acknowledging him.

That is not all. The old prophet said (Isaiah, chap. ii), that the mountain of the Lord's house was to be established above the mountains and hills. You do not think Mount Zion will literally be put on the top of some other mountain, do you? He meant that the government of the Lord's house would be above other governments. Every child can read it.

But that is not all. The Lord said, in the prophecy of Daniel, the little stone you saw cut out of the mountain, which became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth, was the kingdom or government of the God of heaven. That was not a little hill, was it? It was a government he was speaking of.

That is not all yet. In this book of Revelation, the Lord said: the seven heads that you saw are mountains, and the mountains are kingdoms or governments. In the seventeenth chapter we have a positive declaration that a mountain stands for a kingdom, or government, when used in a figurative sense. Then it reads: "I saw a government burning with fire tumbled over into the sea." Says/140/one, "I do not know how you could tumble a government into the sea." But the sea is the religious world. How do I know? The Lord says, in a chapter a little further on in this book, the many waters that you saw are kindreds, and tongues, and peoples, and nations, upon which Mystery Babylon sits, the religious world that she is ruling. There was a sea church in John's day; it was not a thousand little rivulets, rills, springs, and rivers. There was one family on earth; the whole family of the Lord here, in one body, made the sea John was talking of; and the great government dropped over among the Lord's people when it was burning up. Did you ever see the historic fulfillment of this? Look, then, and see. In the days of Odoacer, the Roman Empire went down in its pagan form forever. It had caught on fire with the gospel in the days of Constantine, and had been burning until the year 488, when it went down forever in its pagan form. But where did it go? It went over into the Church; was tumbled down and lost there, in this sea Church--the universal Church; and its influence was seen afterward. And the third part of the creatures died--the Lord's people which were in the Church--and had spiritual life--died spiritually, lost their spirituality. And the third part of the Church's usefulness is destroyed--the commerce among the nations is curtailed that much. The third part of her ships is destroyed, and she is prepared to do one-third part less work for the Lord than before she became thus corrupted. And the third part of the Church became a persecuting power, became blood. That is John's Vision when the second peal from the God of heaven thunders from the trumpet to dying mortals here, to call their attention to it.

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a damp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains/141/of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."

Here we have an account that, at the sound of the third angel's trumpet, a star falls; some illustrious man tumbles down from a high eminence to the earth, or earthly things; and he starts something like a Church; it looked like a lamp, or candlestick, which means a Church; but it was a bitter Church;--and he just calls our attention to the rivers and fountains of waters where this star fell--to where kingdoms and nations first started--away over in the East. That is where the human family, nations and kingdoms, first started. Hence it is called the fountain. And lo, there fell a bitter star (soon after the church was corrupted by pagan Rome, in the year 600, and declared it had one universal head to rule over it here on earth.) But immediately after this corruption of the Church in the West, Mahomet takes his rise in the Eastern country, and starts his Church. It was a bitter one--embittered against Judaism, against Christianity, and against idolatry. He gained his influence over one-third part of the then civilized or settled world, in the East, and had his power on the rivers and fountains of waters where nationality first commenced; and many men died of his followers because they were bitter. A bloody work has commenced in the East under Mahomet's bitter Church; while in the West the Church of Christ is corrupted by pagan Rome falling into it.

"And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise."

A dark time that. But one might say, not so very dark. But John explains that, and says a third part of the time/142/was entirely dark. That was the time when the sun was black as sackcloth of hair; the moon was smitten, and the stars gave no light for a third part of the Christian day, or dispensation,--and that was a little more than one thousand years. The Christian day is three thousand years, at least. How do I know? Why, it has lasted almost two thousand years now, since Christ was born; and we have the promise that it shall last one thousand years while Satan is bound. He is not bound yet; he deceives the nations yet. It will take a long time, and hard work, for all the Lord's people, united together, to bind him. It must be three thousand years. One thousand years of darkness we have then, by the Bible. When the fourth angel sounds, the Church is corrupted in the West, and the penny merchants commence the work of selling the gospel. Mahomet is ruling in the East, and the dark age comes; and in the dark time of one thousand years' darkness, there is a portion, a third part of the dark age, that is darker than the other part. And it is literally true, in history, that in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, and a little into the fifteenth, was the darkest time of the dark ages. They took the Bible entirely from the people; chained the Word of the Lord down, and would not let the people have it; and said the voice of the Church was above it. In the darkest time of the dark ages they did this, and John looked and saw it, and told of it.

"And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet sound!' It had been in the sounding of the first four trumpets, woe to the gospel, woe to the Church, woe to the people that are religiously inclined; woe to the light of the Lord's people. The day was made dark, and now the woe turns to the inhabiters of the earth, or the men that have made/143/it dark. What about that? I remember of once going, when a small boy, into a deep, dark cavern, with some other boys about my own age; and while in there, at some distance from the entrance, we blew our candles out, to see how dark it would be; and then it was greatly to our disadvantage. And so the opposers of the truth had put out the gospel light to their own disadvantage, and the woe turned against them.

"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit."

Did you notice that personal pronoun there? Do you suppose it was a literal star from heaven? lf so, certainly the Spirit of the Lord would have addressed us in language that we could comprehend, and would have said "it;" and would not have used the pronoun "him." He says, "To him was given the key of the bottomless pit," and the Lord had told so plainly, in the former part of this book, that by stars he meant men, that by this time he takes it for granted that we know it, and uses the personal pronoun here to represent a man.

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." When the first angel sounded his trumpet, it was a third part of the green trees and the green grass that was destroyed. I said they were men, and their blood had been shed; they had been burned and stoned to death, beheaded and sawn asunder. When the fifth angel sounded, a man/144/fell from a high position to the earth, and he opened the bottomless pit and let a great smoke out; and locusts came out of the smoke, and hurt the dry tree- and dry grass-- not the green. It was woe to the men of the world now, and they were hurt. They hurt no green thing, but only those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Does he not mean men, by trees and grass? The green trees and grass were men who had the seal of God in their foreheads. The command is, Do not hurt those that understand the Word of God, but only those inhabitants of the earth (men of the world) that have not the seal of God on their foreheads, that do not understand the Word of the Lord. Could language be plainer?

"And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle."

Who are these locusts? Not literal locusts, such as destroy the timber sometimes. They came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, that fathomless abyss, to hurt men that have not the seal of God on their foreheads, that do not understand the Bible. One of the popes in the eleventh century (with his successors after him), claimed to have the power to change the state of the dead, and open the bottomless pit and let the souls of the condemned out. This assumed power let such a smoke of superstition out, that darkened the gospel light, and the swarms of locusts came out of this smoke of superstition.

Said one writer, these locusts ale the Mohammedans, the hosts under Attilla, the Scourge of God. They are Mohammedans, because they have on their heads crowns/145/like gold. They had on their heads yellow handkerchiefs or turbans. As though the Lord was giving an account of the peculiar style of head-dress the people wore! There is one thing said of these locusts--they had crowns like gold. Like gold, is not gold, is it? Anything that looks like gold and is not, is counterfeit. The elders had on their heads crowns of gold. They were saints of the Lord. These had crowns like gold, and were not saints; they only pretended to be. They were not Mohammedans, I know. How do I know? Because they never hurt Christians; these locusts could not hurt a man that had the seal of God in his forehead. Mohammedans did hurt Christians, and did kill them. One writer said, they did not kill all the Christians: and hence he concludes that, because they did not kill all the Christians, it was said they did not kill or hurt any Christians.

But such a loose and uncertain interpretation of the Scriptures would open the way for almost any error. John said, they could not hurt any green thing--only those men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads. The Mohammedans killed some, did they not? These locusts did not kill the men that did not understand the Bible; they could not hurt the Christians. It was commanded them to torment only the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads, and it was given that they should not kill them. They did not kill any one, while the Mohammedans did. These locusts did not hurt a Christian, and did not hill a man that was not a Christian; for the book says, "in the days (of these locusts) shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Men did not have to pray long for death when Mahomet came with his troops with martial pomp, and trampled the earth under his feet. These locusts took the life of no one, although men would desire to die. They/146/hurt the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads, but did not kill them. Who are they?

They are the counterfeit preachers of the dark ages; they are men of greedy principles, the preachers that came out of the smoke of the superstition of the dark ages; the indulgence-sellers that pretended to pray men out of purgatory, and promised to remit sins for money; they would pray to change the state of the dead for money; and they swarmed out in the darkest time of the dark ages. But, with the knowledge you have of the Bible, would you give a dime for their prayers to change the state of your dead friends? Could they get one farthing from a man who understood the Word of the Lord, for indulgence for some sin he might commit in the future?

How did they hurt the men that did not understand the Bible? They took from them their last hard-earned shilling, to buy indulgences against some sin they were fearful they might commit; to have some kind friend taken out of the awful bottomless pit and reinstated in the paradise of God. They had on their heads crowns like gold; they professed to be very good; were very sanctimonious; they were but counterfeits; they were not the Lord's people or his saints.

But I will have to stop here. I have not quite done with the sound of the fifth angel's trumpet; and the sound of the sixth trumpet is one that will make our ears tingle. The man that cannot understand it, is in a deplorable condition. The sound of the next trumpet tells all about circumstances in which we are concerned now, so clearly that a school-boy can understand it.